Fans and critics have been lambasting EA over the weekend amidst calculations that certain unlockable heroes in Star Wars Battlefront II may take 40 hours to unlock (i.e. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, etc.) So it's not surprising that here's now-locked thread on Reddit shares more pre-release player dissatisfaction with Star Wars Battlefront II, kicking off a series of complaints about the upcoming game's grind. The original poster says they will seek a refund for their eighty-dollar Deluxe Edition since it will still require unlocking characters (specifically Darth Vader in this case). A subsequent thread notes that the response from the EA Community Team has inspired a reddit record number of downvotes for suggesting players should take pride in the grind.

In an attempt to quell the response from a segment of the fanbase, the EA Community Team created a Reddit post on the StarWarsBattlefront subreddit explaining the rationale behind their content unlock decisions.

As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay

Without context, however, the "constant adjustments" named here signal the conscious decision to lock certain heroes behind tens of hours worth of gameplay in order to incentivize players to pay money to speed up the process. The post even acknowledges the frenzied feedback that players have been radiating since the news broke:

“We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.”

This response post has already accrued over 350,000 downvotes — a record on Reddit, and one likely assisted by automated scripts and bots. For those not a fan of the systems, there is hope – however – that changes will be made before and in the days after launch to make these staples of the Star Wars universe less expensive to unlock both in terms of hours and money.

Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.

Star Wars Battlefront II will be released next week on November 17 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. My choice is easy, I just won't get the game.

last 10 comments:

Thudo

(08:57 AM EST - Nov,14 2017 )

Lootboxes == Worse Cancer of the Gaming Industry currently. Please die a vicious and violent death at any time as you are not at all wanted. This is not at all the direction the industry needs to go.. complete and utterly p2w or brutal-grind-to-progress model. Gawd!

What's next? Unlock the campaign as you go for $1.99? Enter this building to see what's inside for $0.99? Oh you want more bullets or energy pack for that gun? Yeahh that'll be 50c / 10 rounds. :x

Csimbi

(09:20 AM EST - Nov,14 2017 )

+1 on that, Thud

Koogle

(09:51 PM EST - Nov,14 2017 )

"Battlefront II may take 40 hours to unlock ..."

40hrs? that's not exactly a long time to unlock something.. I've sunk more hours in other games to unlock diddly shit.....

still not really bothered to look at the other complaints... I'm sure there are other more valid complaints though seeing as its EA..